The Marble Goldfish
by CosmicQueerness
Summary: Two collage professors experiment with a substance that can turn living material into stone. This is a short cosmic horror story set in the Cthulhu mythos.


It was around midday, and Hannah Scott walked down the hallways of the science building at Whitraine University. She had just finished teaching a class and had at least an hour before she had to be back to prepare for her next class, so why not spend some time with her currently favorite person. As she approached the open door of classroom B-27 she gave it a healthy set of knocks, signaling her presence to the woman inside. Janet Thompson sat at the desk at the head of the room, and upon hearing the knocking she looked up from her papers and smiled at her visitor. Hannah made her way over to Janet, placing her arms over Janet's shoulders as she stood behind her and kissed her on the cheek.

"I thought we could eat lunch together," Hannah said, "if you're not too busy."

Janet turned and kissed Hannah sweetly on the lips, "I suppose I could give you some of my time."

The women giggled and took each other's hands, and as the clock tower rang it's noon alarm they walked to the main courtyard in the center of campus. They sat at a bench in the garden facing the statue of Margaret Whitraine - who founded Whitraine University back in 1892 - and ate as they talked and enjoyed each other's company. Hannah had worked at the university for a good number of years as a professor of mythological studies, and had met Janet when she was hired as a chemistry professor a couple years ago. The two quickly developed a fondness for each other, growing to be quick friends and more as they grew closer, and though they were both polyamorous they had been each others primary partners for over a year.

"There's something I'd like to show you," said Janet as they finished eating, "something new I've been working on."

Whatever it was Hannah could tell she was rather excited by it, and so she happily followed her girlfriend, hand in hand, back to the science building and into the chemistry lab Janet used for her own experiments. Hannah sat at one of the tables as Janet unlocked her personal cabinet, procuring from it a strange flower. She sat down and handed the flower to Hannah, who began to examine it. It looked exactly like a rose, down to the finest details, but it was made of a brilliant white marblesque stone.

"It's beautiful." Hannah said, not quite sure what to make of the thing. "You said you made this? I had no idea you were a sculptor, the detail is amazing."

"Yes I made it in a way, but I didn't sculpt it. Believe it or not it was once a living organic rose, picked from the garden yesterday."

Hannah was stunned, the notion was so strange she must have been joking, yet she couldn't deny the unnatural detail of it. All she could bring herself to ask was, "How?"

Janet went back to the cabinet and returned with a bucket of a strange pinkish liquid. "With this." She picked up a pencil sitting on the table and dropped it into the solution, and it took mere seconds for the change to occur. She then reached in with a pair of tongs and pulled the pencil out, handing it to her. The wood had changed into the same white stone as the flower, yet the graphite, eraser, and metal fastener all remained unchanged.

"I was thinking about the process of petrification, of how there are mineral springs so full of silica that leaves and branches have their vegetable matter slowly replaced by the silica, atom by atom, leaving a copy of stone. That of course takes years, and I wondered if I might be able to reproduce it on a more rapid scale, so I have been doing some research and eventually created this, an alchemical solution capable of turning organic matter into stone. It's strange though, it felt more like the solution was creating itself, and I still am not fully sure how it works the way it does, it's almost like magic." Janet sort of trailed off as she began to get lost in thought.

"It does seem like magic. Have you told anyone else?"

Janet smiled, "You're the first. I don't really want to bring the discovery to people's attention until I can understand it better, and that requires more testing."

"Seems like a lot for just yourself, though I suppose you've already come this far."

Janet sat down next to Hannah, putting her arm around her. "I suppose since you already know about it, you could maybe help me out."

"I don't know what help I'll be, but i'm happy to help in whatever way I can."

Janet handed her the flower, "Take it, it's yours."

"I'll treasure it." They kissed and parted ways to go teach their respective classes; on her way Hannah stopped by her office, leaving the flower safely on the top part of her desk.

The next day the two women met up in the chemistry lab after classes had concluded. Janet had picked up a small number of goldfish with an interesting spotted pattern, and one at a time she placed them into the solution. They both watched as the fish stiffened and quickly changed into the strange white marble. Once the transformation was complete Hannah used a pair of tongs to remove the fish from the solution and placed them next to Janet. Janet had borrowed a small stone cutting saw from the geology lab and began to slice the petrified goldfish into various segments to be looked at under the microscope. Hannah watched as Janet examined the segments, even though she really wasn't helping out much it still made her happy to watch Janet do the things she loved.

"It's so strange," Janet said as she looked through the microscope, "It's as if the structure is saying the same just, solidified. I can't seem to figure out what exactly this stone is made of, it just seems to be made of goldfish."

"Maybe it would help if you watched the transformation take place?" Hannah said sheepishly.

Janet turned to Hannah, wide eyed, and kissed her on the lips. "I knew there was a reason I kept you around. I could try and rig up something that will let me lower the test material into the liquid and observe it at the same time, as long as all the materials are inorganic I shouldn't have any issue."

"You're cute when you talk science, you know that?"

Their testing concluded for the day, the two packed up the materials. One of the stone goldfish was left and Janet insisted Hannah keep it, and so it gained a place on her desk next to the rose.It took Janet a few days to put together and they decided the weekend would be the best time to do some more testing, since they wouldn't have to worry about classes getting in the way.

They began to set up the equipment, this time using the frame Janet had rigged up to clamp the microscope to the bucket of liquid, allowing them to lower the microscope and slide into the bucket at a controlled rate. With this setup they would hopefully be able to have the microscope on the specimen as it was solidifying. Hannah couldn't help but notice the contraption moved somewhat as Janet attached it.

"Are you sure it's secure?" Hannah asked sheepishly. It wasn't until now she actually started thinking about what sort of harm an accident with this stuff could cause.

"It's fine, I tested it."

"I just… worry about you is all."

"You're sweet, but I'll be fine. I deal with hazardous chemicals on a regular basis you know."

"I guess that's true." Hannah couldn't help but relax, Janet talked so confidently it was hard to argue with her, and she trusted she knew what she was doing. With the microscope set up she started by putting a leaf in the slide, and Janet watched through the microscope as Hannah turned the knob to lower it. It only took a few seconds after hitting the surface for the leaf to fully solidify, but Janet continued to stare into the microscope without saying anything.

"Did you learn anything new?" Hannah said after a short amount of time.

"It happened too fast, I wasn't really able to make it out." Janet began to walk towards the back room, "I was worried this might happen. Something small like the leaf changes way too quickly so we need something larger that will change at a slower rate." When she returned she was holding a smallish cage with a rabbit inside.

"You wanna test it on this rabbit?" Hannah had always had a bit of a fondness for cute animals so the thought made her a little uneasy.

"It's just a feeder rabbit, it won't suffer any more than if you fed it live to a snake, less probably."

"I guess..."

Janet set down the cage and put her arms around Hannah. "You have a big heart and that's one of the reasons I love you, I can set everything up if it makes you more comfortable."

Hanna replied meekly, "No, it's ok, I can help."

Janet took the rabbit out of it's cage, she carried it over to the contraption and Hannah was about to try to strap it down; then the clock-tower rang. The creature flailed around and jumped out of Janet's hands, right towards the bucket. Hannah heard a scream, felt a violent push against her, and then everything went black.

"Janet!" Hannah cried out as she awoke a few minutes later, but there was no response, and all she saw was the ceiling. "Janet?" she said again, this time with much more hesitation. She didn't want to sit up, to face the scene that possibly lay right next to her but just out of her range of vision. Unable to bear not knowing any longer, she sat up, and her eyes began to fill with tears. On the ground before her, was a white marblesque statue that had once been Janet. She stared in rage at what remained of the experiment, the thing that had taken from her one of the people she cared most about. Unable to stand its continued existence she meticulously deconstructed the rig and disposed of everything she could find relating to the solution. She was buried a week later, no one could explain her death so it was labeled a lab accident, only Hannah knew the truth and it was a secret she wanted to take to her grave.

Two years passed, and her thoughts often drifted to Janet, the love who had saved her life at the cost of her own. One day she was grading papers in her office when she fell asleep. It wasn't long though before she awakened to the feel of something lightly slapping against her cheek, and as she drowsily opened her eyes she was surprised to find a living goldfish flopping around in front of her. She thought perhaps someone had been playing some kind of prank on her, but the door was still locked and there was no one to be seen. It was then she was struck with an alarming realization, she recognized the spots on the goldfish. As soon as she stood to see the top of the desk she ran from the building, making her way towards the cemetery as fast as she possibly could. On top of her desk, was a fragrant freshly picked rose.


End file.
